This thread is intented for you to show your work as you go, and for you to get feedback and advice from others. This is were we want you to show your possible submissions for the contest and to the members of the forums. Feel free to post your work and ask for advice and tips as you go. Feel free to ask for advice on anything, not just DOF. Need help with your lights? Feel free to ask. Many people will be popping in during the month to help you as you go along.

To get things started and help you as you go this month we have provided these links to get you started. Pick the ones for your favorite software and you shuold be ready to try DOF in no time.

"We would like to thank Jack Tomalin who has graciously decided to sponsor this months contest" He will be awarding a special prize to the winner of this months "DOF "contest. To view some of Jack Tomalin's items please see his store front here Jack Tomalin DAZ Store

To give you some Idea what DOF can do, here are some images that use DOF. We have provided one from each of the featured programs.

What? No love for Carrara? Carrara has a built in DOF function as well.

Carrara's DOF function on the surface looks and acts almost exactly like it did in Raydream Studio, so I'm sure it's a more primitive implementation of DOF than newer software. There's no mention of f-stops or any of that. There are lens settings but they're under the Camera's settings.

In the DOF control panel, there's a thumbnail of your scene from your render camera, options for DOF quality, whether or not you want the DOF rendered or applied as a post render effect, a field to enter values for distance from the object you're focusing on (or maybe it's focal length. Camera jargon is not my forte), and a field and slider where you can enter blur intensity- or you could click the little red plus sign and click on the object in the the scene thumbnail that you wish to focus on.

Now, I'm not even going to try and beat Cripeman's tutorial, but I do have a little tip: If the thumbnail and window is to small, you can drag out the lower right corner of the window and recenter the view and the thumbnail will enlarge accordingly.

This picture took 47 minutes to render at 2048x1536 (over a network with two other computers) with Skylight which allows you to use HDRIs and other IBLs. In this case Carrara's realistic sky and a sunlight were the sources of illumination. AA settings were good with object accuracy set to .5 pixels and shadow accuracy set to 2 pixels. The sunlight used raytraced soft shadows.

The reason I'm throwing out these numbers is because it took over 30 minutes to apply the DOF. That's in addition to the render time of 47 minutes, which is the reason I mentioned layer masks and depth passes in my previous post. I spent maybe five minutes adding the DOF using postwork. Maybe I'll render the image again and apply the DOF using postwork to see how close I can get it.

Okay with help from others we now have a Carrara Tutorial added to the list of Tut's. I would like to thank Frank for the help as well as all those that were involved. I'm sorry we did not have one before but I could not find one and those I asked could not eather. That has now been corrected. Thank you all for putting up with the oversite this long.

That looks very interesting. I would like to see it after it has cooked (as we Reality people say) for awhile longer. I don't think I could say anything to improve it. Just let it cook and let's see it again.

That looks very interesting. I would like to see it after it has cooked (as we Reality people say) for awhile longer. I don't think I could say anything to improve it. Just let it cook and let's see it again.

OkyDoky, I will put it back on when I go to sleep tonight and see what it looks like in the morning.

I don't like the position of the Sun in this one or maybe its the camera.

Anyway, thought I might post it for some feedback to see if you think I am on the right track.

The DoF is still a bit noisy as I am rendering with Reality/Lux.

I debated about the sun position for a while, I may still change it. The camera angle is staying though, as I want a human level camera to emphasize the size of the ATAT. I may add other elements to the scene as I go along as well to flesh out the environment a bit.

Your render is off to a promising start, however I think the blur intensity is too much. It makes it look more like a miniature. Is there a way to dial it back bit to make it more subtle?

The other minor quibble would be the bear's shader, it looks flat and painted on. I don't have experience with Reality, is this look caused because the render calculations aren't complete? Will subsequent passes or whatever fix this issue? Whatever the issue, it's a DOF challenge and not a shader challenge, so if it's a PITA to fix or change, I'd concentrate on the challenge first and foremost. Good luck!